The "Young People Change the World" international summer school for young activists aged 16 to 25 will take place in the UK from 10th to 17th July 2004.

The Summer School will bring together 300 young people from around 40 countries – all of whom are interested in helping create a better world, and many have started or are working with organisations that are led by young people which address issues of particular concern to young people. We encourage the participation of young social entrepreneurs.

The Summer School is run by young people for young people. The programme consists of:

• skills workshops (fundraising, advocacy, communication, project planning, IT, etc.)
• theme workshops and discussions (a different theme for each day – environment, rights, social justice, health, education, peace, etc.).
• practical project work; participants are encouraged to work with others on a practical project during the summer school, and to develop ideas for projects that they will undertake afterwards on their own or in collaboration with others.
• visits; we also hope to take people to see selected local projects.

There will be lots of fun events. In 2003 these included a “dreams” motivational evening, an international night, an open mike night led by a well known rapper, a world cup 5-a-side football competition involving young women as well as young men, a barbecue, and opportunities for outdoor activities such as swimming, rock climbing, canoeing, yoga and much more.

In 2003, nearly 80% rated the event as “Excellent” and 2004 should be even better!

There will be lots of opportunities for you to participate in the programme and to present your work and ideas to others – and even to forge partnerships to take your ideas forward in other parts of the world. The Planning Team is also interested in involving young people from other countries in helping us plan the event.

Young people can come as individuals, or as a small group of perhaps between 3 and 6 people (which can also include a project worker from their organisation).

The “YOUNG PEOPLE change the world!” initiative is spreading. And we are encouraging this. In 2004, an event is being planned for Nairobi.
We are also hoping to develop linked events all over the world run by young people – some with special themes, such as responding to conflict, some to develop specific skills such as advocacy, some targeted at young people in particular regions (South Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, etc.). All these events will be run by young people, and each will be run independently but as part of the emerging network that the summer school is creating. We are open to suggestions from all parts of the world and offers for hosting these events. Once you sign up, we will keep you posted on these other events and activities.

Cost
The summer school is run as a non-profit venture and we try to keep costs as low as possible and make the event affordable to all participants who wish to come.

Full cost: The full cost is Ј295 per person. This is payable by youth leaders and any other participants who are over 25 in the UK and participants from the UK and overseas who have been able to obtain a grant or have a budget line that enables them to pay the full cost.

Reduced cost: Where you do not have an existing budget or areee unable to get a grant to cover the full cost and have to fundraise or get sponsorship or contribute yourself to attend, we are charging a reduced fee of Ј235 per person.

Bursaries: By April 2004, we may be in a position to offer a number of bursaries to help participants with costs. These are likely to be offered to towards part of the costs only. We are also developing good relationships with the British Council who supported participants from 6 countries last year; we hope to get their support this year in more countries.

All participants will be responsible for their flights and visas, but we take care of you once you arrive in London (the participant fee includes full board and lodging and internal travel in the UK). We are also approaching two major airlines asking them to offer participants cheap flights. We will keep you informed on this.

We can provide hostel accommodation in London before and after the summer school for Ј25 per night, which includes breakfast.

Who should apply
The summer school is targeted at young people and youth organisations who are serious about making a contribution towards social, environmental and development problems and issues that face their communities, their country or the wider world.

You may already have experience of setting up or being involved in a project… or you might be wanting to get started. Either way, the summer school will provide you with the opportunity to gain new skills and to gain energy and enthusiasm to do this. And it will link you with young people from around the world who share many of your ideas for a better world.

Application process
We are attaching details of the application process and a questionnaire to be completed and returned to us. The closing date for receiving applications is 1st March 2004. We should be able to review all applications and confirm participation within 2 weeks of receiving an application. We will then supply you with all the necessary information to apply for a visa. We suggest you think about possible sources of funding before you apply.

We will keep in regular touch with you once your participation has been accepted, and you should let us know about the likelihood of your getting the funding to be able to pay for your attendance.

We will send out invoices on or before 31st March 2004 would like to have all participation confirmed and paid for by 15th May 2004.

We recognise that this won’t always be possible, and we will try (as we have done in previous years) to be as flexible and supportive as possible.

Getting visas
This has proved something of a problem for some participants from certain countries in previous years (and in some countries visas to enter the UK are not required), but we are doing the following to facilitate the process:

• Developing a closer relationship with the British Council, where we will not only be asking them to consider making grants towards costs, but we will also request the local British Council office to do what they can to facilitate your visa application. This is likely to be helpful in some countries.
• Setting up a three-stage process for applying, which involves completing questionnaires and having a discussion on your ideas and expectations for the summer school. We will also be asking many of the participating organisations to prepare some sort of presentation or run a workshop as part of the summer school programme. This menas that all partifipants should have a clear idea of whay they are attending and what they want to get out of the experiece – and this will be extremely helpful when applicants are itnerviewe3d for visas.
• In certain countries, including many in East and West Africa we will be identifying a lead organisation who can coordinate the visa applications for a group of participants coming from several organisations, and at the same time we will ensure that the numbers from these countries are kept at a reasonable level.
  We will provide support and encouragement as best we can.
  Some organisations might wish to add to their list of participants, young people who are involved in their work who are currently in the UK or already have a valid visa.

To find out more
We hope to see you in Summer School, 2004. If you are interested, you can contact Michael Norton on .